Printing on Linux, macOS, and even on Windows seems to be pretty much a solved problem, but what about printing on OpenBSD?
Anyway, to do so I would need to set up my HP OfficeJet printer, connected wirelessly to the network, on OpenBSD. I chose to do this using HPLIP and CUPS as they are both in ports, I am familiar with how they work, and my printer is old enough that its PPD (driver) file is included in the slightly older version of HPLIP that is ported to OpenBSD. However, after installing both packages, starting the relevant services via rcctl including Avahi, and launching CUPS and finding the printer, I could not get it to install properly. Either it would error out at the end saying the printer couldn’t be added and advise me to check the CUPS error log, or it would seemingly successfully add the printer but I couldn’t print anything and couldn’t adjust the printer settings.
↫ Morgan at his blog
Only very tangentially related, but my personal crowning achievement in computing is somehow making it possible for my PA-RISC c8000 workstation running HP-UX 11i v1 to print to my modern all-in-one HP printer thing, some random HP consumer junker we bought on a whim because it was a returned item and cheap. It took some messing around, but ever since I’ve been able to just print stuff right from any application on HP-UX over the network, wirelessly. Note that the c8000 and HP-UX 11i v1 are almost two decades out of date compared to the printer, but by trying out promising device files included in HP-UX I managed to get it all to work.
I never need it, but I am fairly sure I’m one of the very few people in the world who can reliably print from an HP-UX 11i v1 workstation to a modern throwaway HP junker over Wi-Fi. Put that on my tombstone.
Printers are the proof that manufacturers are just plain evil. Any driver/compatibility issue just doens’t exist anymore.
I love PostScript, both as language, and to the broad support it gives to printers, even though Adobe is trying very hard to kill it. I have a new-ish (second last generation) Lexmark printer working under the same hp-ux as you do, and nextstep 3.3 (under hppa). For nextstep 3.3, all I had to do was to modify the printer descriptor file and remove all unicode language and keep only English in the end. I get everything: I can set resolution, enable or disable duplex, choose tray. It’s epic.
We should learn our history:
1. Gutenberg puts out the first(ish) printer.
2. Gutenberg hires a support person to handle the inflow of letters from people asking for help.
Centuries later:
1. Graham Bell patents the telephone.
2. A printing press manufacturer gets a phone line to handle the volume of support calls.
Else: both phones and printers remain utterly unreliable even though they have been around for centuries. Almost every phone call begins with “hi hi? hi can you hear me?” and printers still jam and fail often, no matter how modern.
True story.
“Printing on Linux, macOS, and even on Windows seems to be pretty much a solved problem”
I take great exception at this statement. In a business network environment, we spend at least 50% of our IT support time handling printer issues. Everything from drivers forcing WSD ports (these break when a laptop moves to a VPN) to Windows print service deciding a printer is offline even though it’s active on the network to label printers and applications not honoring page definitions when printing.
Printing in Windows is definitely not a solved problem.